A Perthshire farmer was forced to paddle to the rescue of his prize sheep after the animal decided to take a dip in a frosty pond.
Ken Headspeath’s Zwartble tup, the gloriously named Eebygum, became stranded after leaving behind his ewes to venture out onto ice at Borland Farm near Blairgowrie.
By the time Ken got to him, the recently purchased reserve male champion was bleating loudly and stuck fast in the middle of the water.
There followed a treacherous, if slightly comical, rescue attempt involving Ken’s trusty sheepdogs and an old boat.
Thankfully the rescue ended in the successful recovery of Eeybygum – though not before his affectionate nature threatened to capsize temporary Captain Ken.
“I’d set out on my feeding round and I immediately noticed that he was missing from his ladies,” Ken said.
“My first thought was that he must have got in with the neighbour’s ewes and there was a brief moment’s panic before I heard a faint bleating.
“I never would have guessed in 1,000 years that I would find him standing in the middle of the pond.
“I obviously couldn’t leave him there – it was freezing for starters – and he didn’t look like he was going to move on his own.”
Ken’s work on the 750-acre farm – where he also raises Highland and Belted Galoway cattle and Hebridean sheep – came to a halt as the pondered his next move.
With his sheepdogs understandably baulking at entering the chilly water, he soon realised he would have to undertake the rescue himself.
Venturing out into the water, however, proved impossible as he soon sank up the waist, his foot “stuck in 30 years of silt and duck poop”.
With the ice too dangerous to venture out onto, Ken remembered an old boat lying overturned nearby.
And though there were no paddles to hand, he improvised with a beater for heather burning and made his way out to his stranded animal.
“He was water logged and so heavy that every time I tried to pull him in, the edge of the boat neared the water line and images of capsizing flooded my mind,” said Ken.
“Eventually I managed to haul him aboard and told him to stand still.
“As I went to the stern to paddle back, he joined me, near knocking me in and leaving the bow pointing skywards.
“We eventually got back to the bank and I was able to jump out and secure the boat.
“I stood and looked at the scene and pondered what had just happened. I can’t think what possessed him.
“He just took a couple of minutes to shake-off his adventure, hopped over the boat edge and then wandered-off to see his girls.”
Ken added that Eebygum – “I didn’t pick it, it’s is pedigree name and he came with it” – was “fine and well” following his ordeal and didn’t appear to have suffered any lasting damage.
